Rebellion at the Magic Factory

Shooting Star was awoken by some pony gently nudging her shoulder with their hoof. "Psst! Wake up... Come on." A voice whispered into Star's ear as she blinked away the grogginess of her short rest. Looking up, Star saw a light purple pony looking at her. "Come on, if you don't get up and moving soon, the guards might punish both of us!" The pony said hastily than looked at the guards with a fake smile and waves them back saying "She's getting up, it's fine!" Star stood up and stretched a leg. Before she could ask the other pony what he was doing, he ushered her out of the room and down a hall dimly lit hall. After looking back at the unicorn guards that were standing watch on the three doors, the other pony sighed than smiled at Star. "Sorry about that. I was assigned to show you around. Oh yeah, I'm Blue Jay, but everyone just calls me Jay." Star studied the stallion as he spoke to her. His coat was a fair blue and he had a main of black, white, and small light blue streaks here and there. His wings had white on the tips of the feathers. "And your name is..?" Jays questioning voice interrupted Stars silent inspection of Jay who had stopped and was looking at her. "Sorry, I'm Star. Shooting Star." Jay gave Her a quick overlook before resting his eyes on her flank. "I hope you don't like have any personal attachments to that cutie mark of yours..." Jay said as he looked her in the eye. Jays face took on a shadow when he spoke next. "One of the first things they do here is take away your cutie mark. I don't know how they do it, all I know Is I don't want to know." Shooting star cast a quick glance at her own cutie mark. It was a rainbow following a shooting star. Nothin special. It didn't stand out among her white coat or light orange mane. Shooting Star than noticed that Jay didn't have a cutie mark, in fact, that area of his coat on his flank was lighter than the rest. It looked like that area had just faded away. Looking back at Jay, Star just shook her head. "Well than, welcome to the magic factory." Jay said, sadness hinted in his voice, as he pushed open one of the larger wooden doors that Star hasn't noticed in front of them before. As the two pegasus walked through the open door, they were hit with a slight cool gust of air. Star looked around. They were standing on a large metal balcony that went all around the top and middle part of the open and large room. Down the center of the room a large rock seemed to flow with my colours, more than the ones i the rainbow. Below Star could see many other ponies, mostly pegasus'. A few earth ponies walked and worked among the pegasus, but only unicorns in white lab coats walked around with authority. As Jay guided her to the left and into the first of many doors, Star cast a quick glance to the right and saw a metal staircase leading down to a lower metal balcony and than the main floor of the large room that Star had now realized was a large cave. Entering the room, Star saw it was a large medical office. Unlike the hallway, this room was more brightly lit. The walls looked like they had been smoothed down quickly. A desk with papers as books scattered on it sat in one corner with an examining next to it. In the corner opposite the desk sat an odd looking machine. It had a platform and two things opposite each other that looked like suction cups. "Hello, I presume you are a Shooting Star?" A voice once again cut into Stars inspection of the room. Turing around, Star faced a musters yellow unicorn in a lab coat with a stethoscope around his neck. Glasses sat perched on his nose as he went and sat at the desk. Using one of his hoofs to push back some of his brown mane, he looked at Star. "Lets get this medical examination underway now, shall we?" His voice sent a chill through Star who took a step back. Casting another quick glance around, she saw that Jay was no longer in the room. 'Please let Maple be ok!' Star thought as the doctor pulled out a needle.

Maple turned around in her bed, trying to ignore the telephone ringing in the background. 'Why hasn't Star gotten it yet?!' She thought as she cast a quick glance at the clock on her wall. 'Why hadn't she woken me up yet?!' Maple thought as she quickly shot out of bed. Running into the kitchen with a brush in her mouth, Maple cast a a quick glance around in hopes of a ready breakfast. Seeing nothing, she quick grabbed an apple and set it on the tableland sit down. Leaning down to take a bite while she quickly brushed her hair, Maple considered all the things that could have happened that could have kept her sister from coming home last night. When nothing came to mind, Maple took a frustrating bite out of her apple just as the phone started to ring again. Sighing, Maple jumped down from her seat and set the brush on the table as she trotted over to the phone. Picking up the receiver with her magic, Maple answered. "Hello, is this Miss Shooting Star I'm speaking to?" A squeaky voice asked. Swallowing hard, Maple responded. "No, this is Maple. Who is this?"  Maple heard the flipping of a few papers on the other side of the line before the squeaky voice spook again. "I'm your sisters boss. She didn't report in for work yesterday and didn't give us a notice beforehand. I'm just calling to inform her of some news I have for her. Can you tell her to call me when she can? Thanks, good day." And with that the pony on the other end hung up. Maple hadn't noticed the beeping in her ear telling her the pony had hung up on her. 'Not going to work? But she stayed late last night at work!' Maple had a thousand thoughts running through her head. The one thought that Maple knew was true was that something had happened to her adoptive sister.